When Kimberly Baeth gave birth to her daughter three weeks earlier than
expected in 1998, it was impossible to change her small business’ schedule to
accommodate the baby’s schedule. With dozens of people in attendance and weeks
of planning behind her, the grand opening she had organized for a local business
had to go on.“My husband and I arrived a little late, still wearing the little plastic
bracelets from the hospital,” recalls Baeth, founder and president of Golden
Openings Inc.
Baeth’s New Hope-based company, which will be 3 years old in February, is a
public relations firm that specializes in grand openings, re-openings and
anniversary events.
As member services director at the North Hennepin Chamber of Commerce before
venturing on her won, Baeth received countless phone calls from new businesses
asking if she could provide the big novelty scissors for a ribbon-cutting or
issue a press release about an upcoming event. Unable to do these things, she
presented an idea to the chamber board for a program which would have provided
these services, but it was rejected because of lack of resources.
“And I decided, if they don’t want to do it, I’ll give it a try,”
said the 28-year-old Baeth.
So she quit her job on friendly terms, asked her father to construct an
oversized pair of scissors as a birthday gift, and launched Golden Openings with
only a couple of computers, picking up office equipment along the way.
Since then, Baeth has organized almost 250 events, primarily for small
businesses, though some larger chains, such as Bally’s Total Fitness, Papa
John’s Pizza and ProEx, have also sought her help. Golden Openings is a member
of 12 area chambers of commerce, and Baeth said those memberships and publicity
generated by the events are the company’s primary means of advertising.
Kelly Knutson, Baeth’s summer intern and currently the only other Golden
Openings employee, said she and her boss attended almost every chamber meeting
throughout the summer and were quite successful in drumming up business. “We
would usually find one or two new clients at every chamber meeting we went to,”
Knutson said.
In planning grand openings and other events, Baeth tries to round up as many
people and as much publicity as she can for her client. She has gotten local
big-name celebrities such as Kirby Puckett to attend a couple of grand openings,
and has contacts with several Twins Cities publications to promote, or cover,
the events.
“It takes a lot of persistence [to get the right people there],” Baeth
said. “But the business owner shouldn’t have to deal with it. They should be
treated like a celebrity, not a host.”
And with each event Baeth organizes, the experience she accumulates could be
an appealing factor to other new businesses, said Greg Schneider from the Small
Business Development Center at the University of St. Thomas. “It could be very
helpful for start-up businesses to gain from the experience Golden Openings has
had with events they have done for other businesses, “Schneider said.
Baeth predicts Golden Openings’ revenues to be around $100,000 this year,
but she is not exactly sure-her husband, Kevin does most of the company’s
accounting in his free time. Baeth said she would like to see the company
continue to expand in the next five years, possibly into two other states, such
as Iowa. But, she added, she will need her family time. “I’m not into
working around the clock.”
